falloutfanonfandomcom-20200222-history
Water Tribals
Water Tribals, 'also known derogatorively as "fishmen" or "fishpeople" by the locals of both the sparsely populated post-war Vermillion Bay and burgeoning fishing town of Ewing Bay, Water Tribals are the, naturally, tribalistic inhabitants of much of Louisiana's Vermillion Bay's coast, sticking close to the waterways of said coast owing to their most defining aspect; their ability to breathe underwater, albeit for a limited time, and their abilities as exceptional swimmers. Whilst many fishermen and smugglers of Vermillion Bay have come up with fanciful theories as to the origins of these mutants, most of which stems from age old fairy tales, their actual place of origin is better known to both the few who have explored Berriman Biomechanics' old laboratories near Ewing Bay and the tribals themselves, albeit to a more, almost child-like imagining of their creation. History The Water Tribals, as they have come to be known, originated in Berriman Biomechanics' laboratories originally in the cities of New York and Washington; designed as part of Berriman's "fishman" program, a super-soldier program largely thought up independently for the US government in order to fulfil multiple contracts for it, it was here that the first generation of these tribals would be created, mostly from the unfortunate political prisoners handed over to Berriman for testing. This first generation was left largely unstable, mentally and physically, through beatings and a constant supply of drugs designed to keep them docile, not to mention the volley of genetic tampering taking place, mixing genes of all manner of aquatic species in order to accrue a favourable outcome for these experiments; breeding between them was strictly controlled, with either natural or artificial means of insemination being used in ensuring the creation of a second generation of these creatures. The second generation carried over the first generation's "improvements"; namely the gills and webbed feet and all the so-called "perks" that these substantial mutations brought with them, themselves brought on by all manner of genetic and bio-engineering experimentation but also a fiery hatred of their captors that the first had and did lack. Attacks on their captors, even when this second generation was only comprised of infants, revealed their strength and their cunning to be superior and on-par with Humans, respectively. This second generation was treated to all the harsh treatment their parents had suffered and more before the Great War, whereupon many of them escaped, both aided and aiding their almost equally as feral parents in the escape, in the ensuing chaos; naturally after savaging their former tormentors. Throughout the late 2070s and early 2080s, these tribals began to adapt to this brutal world that was now slowly emerging from the radioactive dust of nuclear armageddon; whilst their parents were useful only as adults, these young children adapted, albeit slowly, to their new world; although they were no longer provided their meals by lab-coat clad physicians, they knew how to hunt; fish and crabs, still going through the labours of mutation, were a prime source of sustenance. By the time these second generation "fishmen" were reaching teenage years, many were already beginning to breed in a way that their former captors had forced them to but a mere 10-20 years earlier. A third-generation sprang from the loins of this second generation, once again adapting to the world of post-nuclear America; all the while hunting far more dangerous prey. By the onset of the 2100s, tribal communities had sprung up across Vermillion bay as packs of these almost feral creatures, only now just beginning to form the basis of a rough language crafted from a mix of English and other languages, began to break away from what was once a unified tribal system; some would search for meaning in their existence, scouring through the abandoned buildings littering the Louisiana countryside, enthralled by these ageing structures and their interiors, sometimes watching Humans from afar with great fascination; most would simply exist as hunter-gatherers, regarded as feral beasts by the Humans and Ghouls of Louisiana as they carved their way across the coast, killing hapless travellers out of xenophobic rage. Some others even managed to branch out further inland, though sticking very closely to the swamps and waterways for fear of being on land where they could not see the water, though more often than preferring to remain in their "natural" territory of coastal waters, mostly for ease of access to bountiful, albeit heavily irradiated and dangerous, fish quantities and open waters, again with the minor caveat of heavy irradiation. The 2100s themselves were a period of time where the Water Tribals made their presence increasingly known along the coast, albeit in small pockets of wandering nomads. The largest congregations were notably located along the Southern and Eastern coasts of Vermillion Bay, though smaller pockets could also be found on the Northern and Western coasts with alarming regularity. The mid 2100s especially saw an alarmingly, to most of the "civilised" inhabitants of the bay, growing trend of increasingly territorial and violent Water Tribals tearing through land-based caravans and savaging lone travellers trying to travel the shortest route around the bay; the coastal areas where these Tribals congregated; by 2160, the largely empty pre-war ruin of Laramie Point had fallen into the hands of two of the largest Water Tribal groups, the Silver Fins and the River Men, whom were now locked in brutal fighting for control of the town. The few surviving citizens of Laramie Point would be driven into living in an increasingly smaller shanty town on the very farthest outskirts of the town, hugging the coast so as to acquire supplies that now increasingly came from Ewing Bay. With many caravans facing closure if they paid for extra protection or longer travel routes, many were forced to turn, cap-in-hand, to Ewing Bay's pseudo-aristocracy and rent out chartered boats to escape the clutches of Water Tribals. Despite this rather useful boon to Ewing Bay, many of the town's locals despised the Tribals and many of the more religious folk, Christians especially, viewed them as godless heathens in need of a damn good thrashing. This thrashing never arrived in the 2100s, though the odd battle between clans and hunting parties did sometimes become a cause for some relief, but did somewhat in the arrival of the Brethren of the Shroud, a maniacal mutant-supremacist cult, in the early 2200s. At first contact, many of this cult's priests and clerics sought to bring these Tribals, their strength and numbers a much sought after boon to the cult's plans, into the fold of the Shroud; this never came about, especially with the violent tendencies and extreme xenophobia of the Tribals themselves leaving many a cleric found floating face-down by fishermen further out on the bay, the mutilated bodies having been washed out into the bay after the Tribals were finished with them. As a result of this the Brethren of the Shroud, by the mid 2200s, had largely given up on the idea of conversion, though many the odd cleric would try, and instead turned to Badlanders and Swampers, an equally as common menace to the average Louisianan, to kill the Tribals in whatever way possible. These Badlanders and Swampers more often than found themselves fighting a particularly tough foe, with the former taking particular ecstasy in this fact, and many an overconfident Swamper or Badlander met their end at the end of a sturdy spear, though equally so too did many a Water Tribal, gunned down from afar with the cackling of drunken inbreds or the roar of triumphant, drug-fuelled miscreants ringing in their ears. Yet the Water Tribals spreading influence did not abate; increasingly, Water Tribals found themselves on the doorstep of many a shanty town of starving settlers, often times wiping these unfortunates out in their xenophobic rages against those who were not their own. Some packs, however, kept their distance entirely and instead stuck to immediate areas around the coast, like beaches or river mouths. Their spread further into land was largely prevented by their own desire to stay close to large water-sources and the actions of Badlanders, Swampers and other factions keen to avoid yet more hostile groups in their own respective territories whilst their spread further along the coast, whilst gradual and drawn out over many months, seemed all but inevitable. Increasingly bitter fights against these Tribals have become common, especially following the 2260s, with growing, powerful factions becoming increasingly keen to horde all the territory they can hold control of obviously not willing to share with uncivilised, brutish Tribals clad in loincloths leering at them with sharpened teeth and spears. Swamper clans, also refusing to abandon hard-gotten gains on the lands near Vermillion Bay, proved the harshest in the fight against the encroaching Tribals; some doing so of their own accord, others with the backing of either the Brethren of the Shroud or even more economic interests, both keen to stem the slow but steady tide of Tribal advance for radically different reasons. With, supposedly, docile packs becoming more common along the coast,the 2270s became a time of apparent stalemate along the coast, with Water Tribals standing their ground against hired guns and desperate militias attempting to cleanse various locales of their presence; by the modern day, 2287, some had thought that the Water Tribals had largely undergone a period of pacifism; however, with the destruction of the minuscule shanty town of the last surviving Humans and Ghouls of Laramie Point, these thoughts were quickly dispelled. It has become quite clear to many along Vermillion Bay that these Water Tribals won't be going anywhere anytime soon, numbering well into the high-hundreds as their numbers are; not without a determined fight, at the very least. Biology Standing at around 5ft-6ft, average Human size, a Water Tribal's appearance is almost entirely similar to that of a Human, replete with bedraggled hair sometimes tied into a rough ponytail and sharpened teeth, more often than not personally filed down to make it sharper; until one looks closer, that is. Gills on both sides of the neck lie awkwardly, opening only when respiration takes place, looking rather like skin welts or deep scarring; scarring across the body is also particularly common, whether picked up through the trials and tribulations of life or located on the skin at birth, and is more often than not covered with ceremonial tattoos accrued. Webbed feet are again an easily identifiable feature, though this webbing is particularly soft and more often than not tears on land, leaving the appearance of dead skin or, as quoted rather humorously by fishermen, wet paper; to ameliorate this, most Tribals have been noted to be wearing what appear to be very primitive shoes crafted from leather hides; whilst hardly as effective as pre-war examples of footwear, these seem to fulfil their purpose rather well; indeed, the creation of such items indicates notable intelligence and problem solving skills for these tribals. Upper body strength and lower body strength is exceedingly higher than a Human's or Ghoul's, though not at all on par with that of most hostile wildlife in Vermillion Bay except for the weakest of Mirelurks in the bay area; exceptionally vicious predators, known to congregate in certain areas othe bay, are avoided by the Tribals for the most part, indicating a basic survival instinct and a basic intelligence. Some Water Tribals have been known to be particularly curious about long abandoned pre-war structures; though avoiding Humans and Ghouls entirely, many seem to have an odd fascination with the settlements and towns dotted along the coast of Vermillion Bay; not to mention the watercraft frequenting fishing towns like Ewing Bay, sometimes approaching said watercraft within meters, observing the working crews with keen interest, which may well have attributed to the paranoia felt by most fishermen in and around the waters of Vermillion Bay. These curious Tribals, sometimes seen in groups, have grown somewhat common as time has passed, with hostility towards settlers, particularly less well off one's, minimal at best; some have put it down to a growing sense of compassion amongst these creatures, whilst others have put it down to simple survival instincts; naturally, the more optimistic tend to go for the former option. Culture Water Tribals have become known for their largely hunter-gatherer, nomadic existence in small groups; rarely has a group ever been seen numbering more than 15 Water Tribals, clad in their various tattered hide garments and tattoos; when two groups are spotted together, it is usually noted that an air of mistrust is quite commonplace; some groups have collided with each other and tried to wipe one another out over land and food. There are, however, two notable, uncharacteristically large tribes that seem to congregate around the ruins of Vermillion Bay; these two tribes are colloquially known as the Silver Fins and the River Men, and have been commonly known to have a bitter rivalry against one another that is only mildly rivalled by their hatred of outsiders; as a result of this, the tribes have congregated in roughly the same areas, forming large camps, and fighting each other on-off in bitter skirmishes that have become noteworthy for nothing but the sheer spectacle of the fighting. Rituals have been noticed, albeit rarely, ranging from everything to tattoos, piercings and even ritual cannibalism of captured citizens; taboos exist amongst the tribals as well, with firearms being despised quite heavily and old pre-war building ruins being avoided at almost all times. The larger groups have sometimes been known to worship idols of sorts, crafted rather roughly from wood recovered from the dead forests of Louisiana; these idols more often than have a fish-like appearance and nature, and are usually worshipped through blood sacrifices; usually of anything from Mirelurks to people. Whilst largely considered to be a part of the mutant "family" as it were by most Humans in Louisiana, Water Tribals are more often than not hostile to anyone other than themselves, in the case of one of the few friendly Water Tribals, Barra-Kooda, preferring Humans over Ghouls owing to the relatively similar appearances of Humans and Water Tribals; notably, Brethren of the Shroud clerics and priests, fool-hardy in their belief that these waterborne creatures would aid them in their quest of mutant dominance, have been found more often than not by fishermen or travellers, rotting away, usually more so than they already were, by a roadside or face down in a river, sometimes with bloody chunks of meat carved from their bodies, giving many of the more wishful thinking fishermen of Ewing Bay hope that both groups will, inevitably, engage in conflict, giving the rather boxed-in town some breathing room; that, and giving many in the town hope that the town would avoid the same fate as Laramie Point. Water Tribals of Note *'Barra-Kooda: A scout and hunter affiliated with the River Men tribe, Barra-Kooda has the dubious honour of being one of the few noteworthy Water Tribals; largely due to his willingness to converse with outsiders, albeit only Human ones, and on rare occasions. Despite this friendliness, Kooda's savageness and ferocity is akin to that of his fellow Water Tribals, and his patience with outsiders only extends so far; however, his hostility seems mainly aimed, at the present, towards those of the Silver Fins, specifically said tribe's champion warrior. *'Pyr-Anrah:' A Silver Fins tribal and warrior of notable brutality, notable even amongst the Water Tribals, Pyr-Anrah is one of the more feared Water Tribals in the region of Laramie Point and, to some extent, the majority of the Vermillion Bay area. Numerous victories and brutal activities have distinguished this particularly savage individual as one of the greatest threats facing those residing anywhere near the vicinity of Laramie Point; especially those that draw his attention, as with the last of the civilized settlers in Laramie Point. Holotapes of Note Holotape 01; "Can't go on the coast no more." ' Hoo, boy, gotta lay of 'em god damned cigarettes.. Ah, it's on, eh? Good, right, Boss, it's Elmer; Captain of the Lucky Lace, yours faithfully, all 'o' that; ya know how we've been makin' our runs on the coast? Well, we been runnin' into - '' '' There've been some, whatcha call 'em, complications in that; you know them Water Tribals? Well, they've been attackin' our boats; arrows and spear chuckin' mostly. We ain't lost nobody; not yet, leastaways. We jus' can't go near the coast no more; they're fuckin' faster than proper folks can kill 'em; that in of i'self is har' enough to do. Basically, if we's gonna keep goin' near the coast we're gonna need a few more guns, see? Well, um, yours ever faithfu- ' Gallery Water Tribal Archer.png|A Water Tribal archer; a common sight along the immediate coast, usually peppering passing boats with arrows. Category:Mutants Category:Groups